Breathing Space

Yoga Studio, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Breathing Space Yoga Studio required a new site that could facilitate new independent Yoga Studio Franchises within the framework of the new site. The previous site had been built using standalone PHP files and a custom CMS. We built a brand-new Drupal 7 site using views, a custom map, and custom templates for various areas of the site. It features a blog, social media integration, and an clAA events calendar, among other things.

Why Drupal was Chosen

Breathing Space Yoga Studio had been using a homegrown CMS with limited functionality for many years, The main reason for Drupal was for its content types and views, which are used extensively on this site. The project requirements called for many different sorts of pages and content items. Describe the project (goals, requirements and outcome): Breathing Space Yoga Studio had a site consisting of standalone PHP files, but the organization had grown and was in need of a more robust yet easy to use CMS. The goal was to streamline web publishing workflows while revamping the site with a completely new design.

Project Goals

Client needs to be able to edit as much of the site on their own as possible.

Site will auto-archive programs, events, and workshops.

Site structure needs to be flexible enough to allow for long-term growth and change, as well as adding features on short notice, for example for upcoming events.

Since this site is for a franchises, it would benefit greatly from using photos. The client wants these to be auto-formatted so they can just upload a photo, and it will get cropped to the right proportions / size automatically without needing Photoshop.

Franchisees will get their own page on the site.

Administratrors will also get their own page.

4 different Programs, each with their own customized page.

Blog.

Events calendar and schedule.

Graphic slideshow headers throughout the site, which the client can easily change.

Outcome

All of the above goals were achieved. Drupal 7 - in particular its granular content types and fields, Views, and Taxonomy - made all of this a breeze, and allowed us to easily customize page configurations as we gathered more feedback from the client.

By leveraging Drupal 7's native fields and content types, we were able to meet these requirements in a flexible way, so that we could build on that framework later by adding more fields or views as needed. We work with Joomla (2.5 and 3) as well as WordPress, have used Concrete5, and have read about the charms of Django, but out of all these we have found Drupal offers the most robust and flexible feature set (a.k.a. framework) while also shipping with an easy to use administrative interface. It was very important to our client that they be able to edit almost everything themselves, and that the site could grow with their needs. Drupal has served them well in this regard.

Project development ran from October 2011-July 2012, with an extensive initial conceptual design process that accounted for all of the client's existing content while mapping out a new Drupal site structure. Actual Drupal development lasted from February-May 2012 , with training, final content migration, and final design and functionality adjustments taking place during June and July 2012.

Design

The Home Page

The home page had to give a high-impact, mostly visual impression of what Breathing Space Youga Studio is about, while unobtrusively giving access to internal pages. It needed to simultaneously give a high-level overview, and provide up-to-date information about the latest happenings. We balanced these using Views Slideshow and several Views blocks for Franchisees

Navigation

We strove to keep the navigation simple and to the point, with an emphasis on the essential information first, and more detailed information in sub-menus. On internal pages we used the Menu Block module to show relevant menu links on the side of the page. For archived items we used tabs (using Quick Tabs), showing current/future information first, and archived information second.

Internal Pages

The previous site had a mostly two-level system of pages; the home page and interior pages, with almost no third-level pages. This presented a problem, because it forced interior pages to become very long and text-heavy. The new design focused on a more visual layout, presenting text only when relevant, and opting for more, shorter pages rather than fewer, longer pages. We used Views and QuickTabs to keep pages from getting too long, and to let users decide when they want to read more about a certain item.

Website Portfolio

About Us

Crossbow Interactive - understanding what it takes to create an incredible website.

In order to be successful, your website needs a flawless marriage of graphic design, programming and communication.

Professional, customized graphic design is needed to give your site the right image and credibility, and draw the attention of your visitors deep into the information your site provides. As new technologies emerge, trends in digital strategy evolve.
Call us 902.410.2155
Send an Emailcontact@crossbowin.ca